Pages

Friday, October 25, 2013

Kin'youbi Mosaic: 10/25/13 I'm A Working Space Dandy Edition

One of the bigger news to come out recently regards the upcoming Winter 2014 anime Space Dandy anime, the latest from Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe. Funimation has already licensed this show, no doubt banking on name recognition (especially with their having rescued Cowboy Bebop) for what will likely be a very popular show, but what they and Japan are planning to do is downright unprecedented.

The show will debut on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block, in January, dubbed in English, before it airs in Japan, and will be simulcast as such throughout the show’s airtime.

Now, a dubbed simulcast is technically not new, having first been done by Bandai Entertainment with Kurokami some years before the company folded. However, this is definitely the first time such a simulcast would appear on US network television. This is definitely a very intriguing development, to say the least.

As a bonus, the show will air at 11:30 PM, a half-hour before the block normally starts airing, extending the length of the Toonami block itself to 6.5 hours.

And if you are a sub fan, Funimation will also stream the show online in Japanese with English subtitles as it airs.

---

NIS America released the first season of Working!! (renamed to Wagnaria!! for copyright reasons) on DVD back in 2011, which was also when the second season of the show aired in Japan. However, no word on a home video release for the second season was heard for a long while… until now.

NIS America will release the Premium Edition Blu-ray of season 2 of Working!! (titled Wagnaria!! 2) on February 4th, 2014. As usual, the release will come with only the original Japanese track with English subtitles, but will include a large artbox and artbook. The release is available for pre-order on RightStuf, or you can wait for the announcement of the NISA Store’s exclusive bonus item.

That's not all that NISA has licensed for a home video release! The Eccentric Family, one of Summer 2013’s stronger shows (and there were a lot of strong shows that season), has also been licensed by NIS America. Yep. Don’t expect a release from them anytime soon (maybe in a year at the earliest), but this is also definitely very welcome news.

---

As a warning, NaNoWriMo starts November 1st, and as a participant, I will likely be going on a blog hiatus for that month. If you plan on participating in NaNoWriMo as well, give a shout-out in the comments with your username on the NaNoWriMo site, and I’ll add you as a writing buddy there! My username there is “stardf29”.